Busted! Online Poker Co-Founder Pleads Guilty

Eight months after being charged by U.S. prosecutors in a crackdown on Internet gambling, the co-founder of online poker Web site Absolute Poker folded and pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

Brent Beckley, a co-founder of Costa Rica’s Absolute Poker, was among 11 people charged in April with violating U.S. laws against illegal gambling.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan alleged the founders of poker Web sites Absolute Poker, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker and others disguised billions of dollars from U.S. gamblers as payments to fake online retailers for golf balls, jewerly and other merchandise. . .